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...Unlike the Democrats' outdated ideas from the 60s, Republicans are thinking about ways to update our nation's approach with fresh proposals that speak to the situation Americans actually find themselves in today.

So if our Democrat colleagues are serious about their focus on economic distress - if it's more than just some poll-tested Obamacare distraction - then I invite them to work with us on innovative new approaches like this. They could allow the Senate, for instance, to consider our proposal as an amendment to the UI legislation currently on the floor.

Because this is a discussion that needs to be about really helping people.

And these Economic Freedom Zones are similar in some ways to the Promise Zone initiative recently developed by the Obama Administration. I was pleased to hear that eight counties in Eastern Kentucky will soon receive Promise Zone designation. That's why I wrote in support of granting this designation last year, because there's no doubt that Eastern Kentucky is a region that has suffered enormous hardship in recent years - much of it, unfortunately, related to the very same Administration's 'war' on coal families. But the Promise Zone designation is a step in the right direction nonetheless. Senator Paul and I will be heading to the White House later today for a Promise Zone event, because we're encouraged that the President is finally focused on a concrete approach to jobs that members of both parties can support - proving that we can accomplish things when we focus on real efforts rather than political show votes designed to fail.

And Promise Zones are something we could build on with far more comprehensive approaches, like Economic Freedom Zones that would reach even more communities in need of revitalization.

Because let's remember this: government programs can sometimes help, but they can't do everything. And the 1960s mindset about how to fight poverty - it needs to change to fit the realities of the 21st Century.

I want to share a sentiment I read just yesterday from Thomas Vinson, an unemployed coal worker from the very Kentucky county where LBJ launched his big-government blitz 50 years ago. This was his take on the so-called 'War on Poverty': What good are all these government programs if they don't get you a job? It's a feeling, the article noted, that's widespread among his neighbors in Martin County.

This is why Republicans say it's time for modernization and new approaches. It's time to give folks like Thomas real hope. It's time to give them more than good intentions.

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